Bis repeated. Emmanuel Macron’s first term was marked by the Yellow Vests movement, will the second be too? In recent weeks, the unions have succeeded in mobilizing hundreds of thousands of French people against the pension reform carried out by the President of the Republic and his Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne. Extension of the contribution period, retirement age at 64… There are many points of contention. However, it is a political decision that seems to have set fire to the powder in recent days, that of resorting to Article 49.3 of the Constitution.
As the newspaper Les Echos explains, several spontaneous rallies have taken place in different cities in France in recent days, some ending in violence, as was the case in Paris. Rennes, Marseille, Nantes, Lille… In Dijon, dolls bearing the likeness of Emmanuel Macron and Elisabeth Borne were even burned. The offices of several elected members of the National Assembly have been vandalized, to the point that Aurore Bergé, president of the Renaissance group at the Palais-Bourbon, has requested enhanced protection for the deputies concerned from the Ministry of the Interior.
Should we expect a revival of the Yellow Vests movement? To that of Nuit Debout? Quoted by Les Echos, the government explains that it is “too early to say if there are similarities”, because “all this remains very uncertain and no one can say what it can lead to”. Will the movement become more radical? Asked by Ouest-France, political scientist Christian Le Bart, who has written a book on the Yellow Vests movement, explained: “With a government that remains deaf and union mediators who are unable to obtain satisfaction, the scenario of ‘a hardening and an overflow of the unions becomes possible’. On the side of the Élysée, we are already on maximum vigilance…
Does the government fear a return of the Yellow Vests? According to Le Parisien, Emmanuel Macron would ask his collaborators to be informed “of all the hot spots”: “I want to know what is happening wherever there are overflows”. The demonstrations of recent days have concretized the scenario feared by the government, that of “a political crisis relayed by anger from the street in the event of the outbreak of 49.3”, specifies the daily. For a parliamentarian, the sentence is implacable: “We were on a powder keg and we lit the fuse”.
With Le Parisien, relatives of Emmanuel Macron reassure themselves as best they can, explaining that “it’s not the same story, nor the same context, nor the same people”. A minister also claims not to believe “in a massive social movement over time”. However, gatherings of yellow vests are already planned for the next few days…
The government wants to believe in an isolated movement, but rallies of yellow vests are already planned in Paris and throughout France.
In the event of rejection of the motion of censure, debated this Monday in the National Assembly, the government fears new scenes of violence which, according to members of the Executive, are “inevitable”. The inter-union, for its part, calls for a new day of strike Thursday, March 23, but will the unions manage to contain this wilder movement, when they were rejected by the Yellow Vests five years ago?